While all Europeans have become hostages of the Brexit talks, the Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini on Tuesday (28 June) offered a reassuring project for angry and worried European citizens, writes Damien Helly.

Damien Helly is deputy head of European Centre for Development Policy Management’s Strengthening European External Action Programme

The Global Strategy for the EU is a frank diagnosis of the world’s complex challenges and a wake up call to European societies’ collective decline and irrelevance. It offers an historical step change in the way security and prosperity are addressed in our societies and aspires to be a lighthouse for Europeans sailing on uncertain waters.

Against growing internal and external threats, the new global strategy devised by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reinforces the soft power mantra and urges jettisoning the illusion that international politics can be a zero-sum game, EURACTIV.com has learned.

EU negotiations with the UK on their future relationship will also be inspired by this courageous document emanating from wide consultations with European people on the future they want.

There are four key elements in the Global Strategy:

Firstly, it is reassuring because it is not delusional, and not bureaucratic. It is a call for European maturity. The strategy addresses serious threats (European internal divides, Russia, conflicts around Europe, tensions in Asia) with no complacency. It sets out clear priorities – boosting European strategic autonomy and self-confidence, in addition to the comfort of relying on NATO and the US; conflict resolution; shared prosperity; and migration management. The strategy encourages Europeans to look honestly at these issues and to find concrete ways to manage them together as a bloc by building everyone’s resilience.

Secondly, the strategy is reassuring because it is not dismissive of people’s European values and does not shy away from difficulties (jobs, fragility, doubts and fears about migration flows) within European societies to keep those values alive. It offers a people-centred investment project. Investing in people’s future jobs and security is combined with a stronger engagement in dealing with others’ problems in the world, but also sharing opportunities with them.

Thirdly, the strategy is a global diplomatic project embedded in European strengths. It is about political talks, but also about climate, stronger representation of the Euro in the world, smart cooperation, fair trade, meaningful investments, youth exchanges. In other words, Europeans are offered to contribute to new forms of diplomacy – mixing soft and hard power – in which they can play a role in various forms of engagement at home and abroad.

Finally, the Global Strategy covers the entire world and seeks to contribute to better global governance by reforming contested multilateral structures in which old European powers have concentrated their domination. It brands our societies in new ways: Europeans already are and can become more effective “agenda-shapers” and “connectors”, “within a networked web of players”. The Global Strategy also clearly aligns with the latest global commitments to sustainable development, climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The very fact that the Global Strategy succeeded in becoming global in its ambition and remit makes it a unique achievement. One year ago, the scope of this strategy was still under discussion and the risk of ending up with a narrow security strategy was real.

While it is not very precise on geographic priorities (always contentious issues amongst EU Member States) in Asia and in Africa and the connections with citizens and internal democratic, social and economic dynamics do not seem very concrete, the Global Strategy is unprecedented. It will be reviewed annually and re-drafted every five years and from it will emerge many sub-strategies giving direction to modernised global ways of life in Europe. It will never replace national political elites’ responsibilities, but it already challenges them on behalf of concerned European societies.

Federica Mogherini has been up to the task. She courageously provided European leaders with a challenging, realistic while ambitious framework, with an incredibly robust tool box reflecting the strength of European societies. The question now is: what will European leaders do with the Global Strategy?

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One response to “Mogherini’s new Global Strategy offers lighthouse for EU in uncertain waters”

The Gobal Strategy prepared under the leadership of HR Frederica Mogherini is indeed a “lighthouse for EU in uncertain waters” there are areas of the Strategy that are vital for Europe’s future, but that are largely ignored or that are not sufficiently emphasized. The only substantive reference to outer space in the strategy is on pg. 42, “In space, we will promote the autonomy and security of our space-based services and work on principles for responsible space behaviour, which could lead to the adoption of an international voluntary code of conduct.” In an era when Luxembourg is investing hundreds of millions in asteroid mining, Elon Musk is planning the colonization of Mars and the Director General of ESA proposes development of permanent facilities on the Moon the EU needs a more substantive response than the above sentence.
The Global Strategy stresses following a rules based global order. There is no rules based order in space yet major spacefaring powers are developing technologies to mine the Moon, Mars and asteroids. What policies should govern mining the asteroids? Luxembourgh and Denmark have developed space law to begin to address such questions. Most EU member states lack national space laws to address the ownership of resources extracted from asteroids or the Moon or other celestial bodies.
If indeed space will emerge as the trillion euro opportunity of the future the EU grossly underinvests in space. Yes, the EU is the largest economy in the world. If the closely associated countries like Switzerland and Norway are added the total GDP exceeds that of the US by about $3 trillion, yet the EU invests only about half of what the US invests in space through NASA. If Musk and Luxembourgh are right then during the coming decade the EU will be left far behind.
The Global Strategy suggests that the EU may be best equipped to take a leading role in the development of a rules based order for space development. Unlike the US, which is hobbled by the Wolf amendment to engage with China in the peaceful development of outer space, the EU has no such restriction. The EU has developed instruments such as its Horizon 2020 research funding program to foster cross-border cooperation in science and technology that has no parallel. If the EU marshalled its unique strengths it could make a major contribution to build greater security and prosperity through space development. But, who within the EU will take the lead? The High Representative has largely ignored the issue.